PAUSES.
"A pause is often more eloquent than words." The common pauses necessary to
be made, according to the rules of punctuation, are too well known to
require any particular notice here, they serve principally for grammatical
distinctions, but in public reading or speaking other and somewhat
different pauses are required.
The length of the pause in reading must be regulated by the mood and
expression and consequently on the movement of the voice, as fast or slow;
slow movements being accompanied by long pauses, and livelier movements by
shorter ones, the pause often occurring where no points are found--the
sense and sentiments of the passage being the best guides.
"How did Garrick speak the soliloquy, last night?"--"Oh! against all rule,
my lord, most ungrammatically! Betwixt the substantive and the adjective,
which should agree together in number, case, and gender, he made a breach
thus----stopping, as if the point wanted settling; and betwixt the
nominative case, which, your lordship knows, should govern the verb, he
suspended his voice in the epilogue a dozen times, three seconds and three-
fifths by a stop-watch, my lord, each time." "Admirable grammarian!--But,
in suspending his voice,--was the sense suspended?--Did no expression of
attitude or countenance fill up the chasm?--Was the eye silent? Did you
narrowly look?"--"I looked only at the stopwatch, my lord!"--"Excellent
observer!"
_Sterne._
A Rhetorical Pause--is one not dependent on the grammatical construction of
a sentence, but is a pause made to enable the speaker to direct attention
to some particular word or phrase, and is made by suspending the voice
either directly before or after the utterance of the important phrase. In
humorous speaking the pause is generally before the phrase, as it awakens
curiosity and excites expectation; while in serious sentiments it occurs
after and carries the mind back to what has already been said.
A pause of greater or less duration is always required whenever an
interruption occurs in the progress of a thought, or the uniform
construction of a sentence, as in the case of the dash, the exclamation,
the parenthesis, etc. In these cases the mind is supposed to be arrested by
the sudden change of sentiment or passion. It is necessary in most cases to
make a short pause just before the parenthesis, which read more rapidly,
and in a more subdued tone; when the parenthesis is concluded, resume your
former pitch and tone of voice.
EXAMPLES OF RHETORICAL PAUSES.
(1.) After the subject of a sentence:
Wine | is a mocker.
(2.) After the subject-phrase:
The fame of Milton | will live forever.
(3.) When the subject is inverted:
The best of books | is the Bible.
(4.) Before the prepositional phrase:
The boat is sailing | across the river.
(5.) After every emphatic word:
_William_ | is an honest boy.
William _is_ | an honest boy.
William is an _honest_ | boy.
(6.) Whenever an ellipsis occurs:
This | friend, that | brother,
Friends and brothers all.
(7.) In order to arrest the attention:
The cry was | peace, peace!
EMPHASIS.
Emphasis generally may be divided into two classes--Emphasis of sense and
Emphasis of feeling. Emphasis relates to the mode of giving expression;
properly defined it includes whatever modulation of the voice or expedient
the speaker may use, to render what he says significant or expressive of
the meaning he desires to convey, for we may, by this means, give very
different meanings to our sentences, according to the application of
emphasis. For instance, take the sentence--"Thou art a man." When delivered
in a cool and deliberate manner, it is a very plain sentence, conveying no
emotion, nor emphasis, nor interrogation. But when one of the words is
emphasized, the sentence will be very different from what it was in the
first instance; and very different, again, when another word is made
emphatic; and so, again, whenever the emphasis is changed, the meaning is
also changed: as, "THOU art a man." That is _thou_ in opposition to
another, or because _thou_ hast proved thyself to be one. "Thou art a
MAN." That is a _gentleman_. "Thou ART a man." That is, in opposition
to "thou _hast been_ a man," or "thou _wilt be_ one." "Thou art
A man." That is, in opposition to _the_ man, or a _particular_
man.
Then, again, the sentence may be pronounced in a very _low_ tone of
voice, and with force or without force. It may be raised uniting a good
deal of stress, or without stress; and then, again, it may be heard with
the greatest force, or with moderate force. Each of these latter modes of
intonation will make a very different impression on an audience, according
to the employment of the other elements of expression, with that of the
general pitch..
In addition to these, the sentence may be pronounced in a very _low and
soft_ tone, implying kindness of feeling. Then, in a _whisper_,
intimating secrecy or mystery. It may be heard on the SEMITONE, high or
low, to communicate different degrees of pathos. And then, again, the
TREMOR nay be heard on one or all of the words, to give greater intensity
to other elements of expression which may be employed. As, also, a GUTTURAL
emphasis may be applied to express anger, scorn, or loathing. These are
some of the different meanings which may be given to this sentence of four
words by the voice. A good reader, or speaker, then, ought not only to be
able to sound every word _correctly_; he ought to know, always, the
EXACT _meaning_ of what he reads, and _feel_ the sentiment he
utters, and also to know HOW to give the _intended_ meaning and
emotion, when he _knows_ them.
By _practice_ upon the different exercises herein, the student will
not fail to recognize the emotion from the sentiment, _and will be able
to give it_.
Emphasis of feeling is suggested and governed entirely by emotion, and is
not strictly necessary to the sense, but is in the highest degree
expressive of sentiment.
1. _On_! ON! you noble English.
2. _Slaves_! TRAITORS! have ye flown?
3. To _arms_! to ARMS! ye braves?
4 Be _assured_, be ASSURED, that this declaration will stand.
5. _Rise_, RISE, ye wild tempests, and cover his flight!
6. To _arms_! to ARMS! to ARMS! they cry.
7. _Hurrah_ for bright water! HURRAH! HURRAH!
8. I _met_ him, FACED him, SCORNED him.
9. _Horse_! HORSE! and CHASE!
10. The charge is _utterly_, TOTALLY, MEANLY, false.
11. Ay, cluster there! Cling to your master, _judges_, ROMANS, SLAVES.
12. I defy the honourable _gentleman_; I defy the GOVERNMENT; I defy
the WHOLE PHALANX.
13. He has allowed us to meet you here, and in the name of the present
_generation_, in the name of your COUNTRY, in the name of LIBERTY, to
thank you.
14 They shouted _France_! SPAIN! ALBION! VICTORY!
CLIMAX.
Climax, or cumulative emphasis, consists of a series of particulars or
emphatic words or sentences, in which each successive particular, word, or
sentence rises in force and importance to the last.
INFLECTIONS.
The inflections of the voice, consist of those peculiar slides which it
takes in pronouncing syllables, words, or sentences.
There are two of these slides, the upward and the downward. The upward is
called the rising inflection, and the downward the falling inflection, and
when these are combined it is known as the circumflex.
The rising inflection is used in cases of doubt and uncertainty, or when
the sense is incomplete or dependent on something following. The falling
inflection is used when the sense is finished and completed, or is
independent of anything that follows.
Indirect questions usually require the falling inflection.
Falling inflections give power and emphasis to words. Rising inflections
give beauty and variety. Rising inflections may also be emphatic, but their
effect is not so great as that of falling inflections.
1.
I _am_`.
Life is _short_`.
Eternity is _long_`.
If they _return_`.
Forgive us our _sins_`.
Depart _thou_`.
2.
What' though the field be lost`?
All` is not` lost`: the unconquerable will`,
And stud`y of revenge`, immor`tal hate`,
And cour`age nev`er to submit` or yield`.
3.
And be thou instruc`ted, oh, Jeru`salem', lest my soul depart` from thee;
lest I make thee' des`olate, a land not' inhab`ited.
If the members of a concluding series are not emphatic, they all take the
rising inflection except the _last_, which takes the falling
inflection; but if emphatic, they all take the falling inflection except
the _last_ but _one_, which takes the rising inflection.
The dew is dried up', the star is shot', the flight is past', the man
forgot`.
He tried each art', reproved each dull delay', allured to brighter worlds'
and led the way`.
They will celebrate it with thanksgiving', with festivity' with bonfires',
with illuminations`.
He was so young', so intelligent', so generous', so brave so everything',
that we are apt to like in a young man`.
My doctrine shall drop as the rain', my speech shall distill as the dew',
as the small rain upon the tender herb' and as the showers upon the grass`.
THE CIRCUMFLEX OR WAVE.
The Circumflex is a union of the two inflections, and is of two kinds;
viz., the Rising and the Falling Circumflex. The rising circumflex begins
with the falling, and ends with the rising inflection; the falling
circumflex begins with the rising, and ends with the falling inflection.
Positive assertions of irony, raillery, etc., have the falling circumflex,
and all negative assertions of doubled meaning will have the rising. Doubt,
pity, contrast, grief, supposition, comparison, irony, implication,
sneering, raillery, scorn, reproach, and contempt, are all expressed by the
use of the wave of the circumflex. Be sure and get the right feeling and
thought, and you will find no difficulty in expressing them properly, if
you have mastered the voice. Both these circumflex inflections may be
exemplified in the word "so," in a speech of the clown, in Shakespeare's
"As You Like It:"
"I knew when seven justices could not take up a quarrel; but when the
parties were met themselves, one of them thought but of an If; as if you
said so, then I said sô. Oh, hô! did you say so*? So they shook hands, and
were sworn friends."
The Queen of Denmark, in reproving her son, Hamlet, on account of his
conduct towards his step-father, whom she married shortly after the murder
of the king, her husband, says to him, "_Hamlet_, you have your father
_much_ offended." To which he replies, with a circumflex on
_you_, "Madam, yô*u have my father much offended." _He_ meant his
_own_ father; _she_ his _step_-father. He would _also_
intimate that she was _accessory_ to his father's _murder_; and
his peculiar reply was like _daggers_ in her _soul_.
In the following reply of Death to Satan, there is a frequent occurrence of
circumflexes, mingled with _contempt_: "And reckon's _thou
thyself_ with _spirits_ of heaven, hell-doomed, and breath'st
_defiance here_, and _scorn_ where _I_ reign king*?--and, to
enrage thee _more, th*y_ king and _lord!_" The voice is
circumflexed on _heaven_, _hell-doomed_, _king_, and
_thy_, nearly an octave.